With internet access becoming more readily available, and users becoming more sophisticated in the use of same, searching for data has become a key aspect of the online experience. This has had a particular impact on those operating in the area of electronic commerce (e-commerce), from parties such as online retailers seeking to make their stock more readily accessible, to search engine providers looking to capitalise on such demand by providing a service.
There are a wide array of existing techniques intended to enable a search engine user to quickly and easily locate or identify relevant results. These include ranking search results for a keyword based on the frequency with which users have selected the result following a search, or auto-completion of partially entered search terms, among many others.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,213 describes one such system and associated methods for suggesting auto-completion strings to users during entry of search terms. The suggested strings are based on attributes such as popularity (resulting in the best-selling product, or most frequently accessed link) specific to the database being searched. Such a method still requires users to conduct the search before gaining access to potentially relevant results.
The provision of relevant results is particularly important to online retailers, where the ease with which a customer can find a desired product or service can directly correlate to sales, and customer loyalty.
With the normalisation of e-commerce and the increasing number of online retailers and searching providers being established, competition to gain or maintain market share is intensifying. With users becoming more sophisticated and critical of website appearance and functionality, any improvement or innovation can be useful in gaining a competitive edge.
In particular, minimising the number of steps, or amount of time it takes for a user to gain access to relevant results, could be useful. Even providing a point of difference in searching functionality could be a significant advantage.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
Throughout this specification, the word “comprise”, or variations thereof such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.